Here’s the fabulously talented Renée Summerfield, one of the actors who will be taking the school show that I’m directing out into the world next week.
Joining her will be Santino Paglia, a student plucked straight from my Second City Conservatory Class. He doesn’t have a website to call his own yet—not even a MySpace page!—but with fame and fortune beckoning he’ll be getting one soon enough…
One of the few regrets from my trip to Tokyo last winter was that I didn’t pick up a souvenir keitai strap of Docomodake, the freaky mushroom-like mascot of NTT DoCoMo. But thanks to an extremely kind gesture by fellow blogger Roy I now have one in my possession, pictured here dangling from my trusty hiptop2.
It’s perhaps a bit large for everyday use, but you know I’m going to have it with me on my next trip to the Far East—speaking of which…
(Drowsy circa 1999 at Theatre Passe Muraille…)
Kudos to all the folks involved at one point or another with what will forevermore be known as the Tony Award-Winning Broadway hit The Drowsy Chaperone.
I myself was a bit surprised that they didn’t win the hardware for Best Musical. I’m guessing that the powers-that-be switched the winning envelope after Don McKellar made that crack about thanking “The American musical comedy… Which has given us so much to make fun of.”
But I’m a conspiracist that way…
Though it’s really a sheer coincidence of timing, I’m gonna call the part The Williamson Playboys gave me in their radio pilot yesterday another birthday present.
What a joy it was to muck around in a studio with a bunch of really talented people, all trying to make each other laugh. If even half of the commercial auditions I’ve done over the years were like this I’d still be doing them.
Al Howell, Jack Mosshammer and I were talking just the other day about how we used to try to crack each other up on stage at Second City, more often than not at the expense of our fellow cast-mates.
But don’t be too quick to discount such behaviour—after all, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway weren’t exactly known for their smart writing on The Carol Burnett Show.
(Too much love for this old man to handle!)
So the tradition of posting my birthday Globe & Mail Horoscope is no more, as the Globe is now charging people to access that part of their site.
And you know what? Fuck ‘em!
After what happened to me in the dwindling hours of my thirties I’ve realized that I don’t need anyone to chart my future for me—I’m doing just fine, thanks.
Tuesday night I was invited to an intimate dinner with a small circle of friends, and through no small amount of subterfuge was led to the restaurant where my ladyfriend works, where a much larger circle of friends was waiting to surprise me. And surprise me they did! This Flickr Photo Set tells the story better than I ever could.
The next morning as the emails started flooding my inbox I was reminded that my circle of friends was larger still. And all I can give you in return is my heartfelt thanks—you’ve all made an old man very happy…
AC:
Happy birthday! Here’s to 400* more good years!
Ed
Happy 40th Teach! I didn’t know your birthday was coming up until it was all over. Speaking of the future, I forsee a Guiness in your’s, courtesy of me. Cheers,
~Ian
You’re just a kid. I had my 40th surprise a year and a half ago. Good to see Ray Dumas in the photos!
Happy birthday Andrew!
Jenn is discussing.
It’s too bad they didn’t win the last one, conspiracy or not. I’m just glad I got to see one of the numbers on TV since I can’t make the trek to NY to see the whole thing